President to meet UN envoy again on Friday

President Nikos Christodoulides will have a new meeting with the UN chief’s personal envoy for Cyprus, Maria Angela Holguin, on Friday at noon, he announced on Thursday on arrival at the extraordinary summit of the European Council in Brussels.

The president and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar met separately with the envoy on Tuesday. Holguin has since continued her meetings on the island.

On Thursday she was scheduled to meet with civil society groups, women’s organisations, and also tour the Green Line. Holguin is also scheduled to meet Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens next Tuesday, according to Christodoulides.

Referring to his own talks with the UN envoy, the president described it as a very good meeting.

“I must once again publicly welcome the appointment of Ms Holguin. She brings vast experience… from Colombia. Of course, the facts are different in Cyprus, but she has significant experience, which can help us,” he said.

He added that she was also known at the European level “for her work, for her role and her abilities”.

He said he had spoken to Holguin late on Wednesday on the phone and agreed to meet on Friday at noon in Nicosia “as a continuation of the contacts she had”.

Referring to her upcoming talks with Mitsotakis, Christodoulides described it as “a meeting at the highest possible level”, and he hoped the response from Ankara to her mission would be equally welcoming in the sense that she would be able to meet with President Tayyip Erdogan.

Christodoulides said he himself, would do “everything possible” to create the conditions to resume the talks from where they left off in Crans-Montana in 2017.

After her contacts on Tuesday with the two leaders, Holguin said the most important thing was to listen, not just to leaders, but to society.

Speaking to reporters in the north following her meeting with Tatar, which came hours after her meeting with Christodoulides, she said that “we must now think of the future.

“What I am going to do is listen to the people, listen to civil society, the needs of the people, what they want,” she said, adding that she learned this after participating in the peace process in Colombia.

“We must listen to the people and civil society. Because leaders must seek common ground,” she said.

“We are going to help. We are here to facilitate and I am very happy to do so,” she added.

The Greek Cypriot said afterwards that Christodoulides had conveyed the belief that if there was mutual political will from both sides, then negotiations on the Cyprus issue could resume very soon.

Tatar, for his part, reiterated his position that there were two states in Cyprus and in order to find common ground, “the sovereign equality of Turkish Cypriots must be accepted”.

On Thursday, the north’s ‘foreign minister’ Tahsin Ertugruloglu said the results of Holguin’s contacts in Cyprus would “have to reflect the realities”.

He said her mandate included the condition that she determine within six months whether there was common ground for starting new negotiations.

“The Turkish Cypriot side… will convey to the personal representative at every opportunity that it supports two states on the Island and ready to enter into a new cooperation model with good neighbourly relation, following the recognition of the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot side,” he said.

Ertugruloglu said the Turkish Cypriot side respects Holguin’s past experience.

“The Cyprus issue has its own sensitivities and characteristics. We expect her to listen and understand the positions of the parties in good faith within the framework of her duty and to reflect the realities of the island in her report,” he concluded.

Later in the day, media reports from the north said Holguin would also meet with the Turkish Cypriot leader a second time, on Friday, before departing the island.